Photography Courtesy of Pexels.com
Your mom tells you to love yourself. Your favorite celebrity tells you to feel comfortable in your own skin. Men tell you they like you when you wear “the natural look”. But when you step out with your group of friends feeling pretty in your skin and wearing your tight, sparkly dress that shows you off, you feel eyes on you and a harsh comment escapes the lips of the unknown, “What a slut.” Oh the irony. In a world where 80% of victims of human trafficking are woman and 30% of woman have reported violence as well as sexual violence from their partners, we need to come together as a community and fight against rape culture. We have a president currently under scrutiny of disrespecting woman- even more of a reason to band together and fight. The word “slut” is ridiculous and should be nonexistent in our community.
Woman in society, celebrities included, cannot escape the hateful comments regardless if one has had a long-term relationship without convicting adultery. According to Merriam-Webster.com, the definition of a slut is a “promiscuous woman” with examples such as a “prostitute”. The word “slut” has been so overused and beat to the ground, we use it now to anyone who angers us or we feel hate towards. The repercussions of throwing around a word that ultimately is associated with a woman who has sex for money could be quite trivial.
The Huffington Post reported three suicides that resulted from slut shaming and those are not even all of these type of cases. The saddest element to these examples presented are that these women taunted for being “sluts” were rape victims. Girls like Audrie Pott, a rape victim, not only had to deal with the haunting of being sexually harassed and tormented, but had to deal with her peers calling her this demeaning word due to a picture that surfaced of her with these four guys who took advantage of her. This usage of such a nasty word only encourages rape culture with phrases like “she was asking for it”. No one asks to be hurt and raped. A women’s body should be celebrated and welcomed into our community even if it strays from traditional beliefs on how women should carry themselves–not a scapegoat to why they were taken advantage of.
A word that began in the 1300’s as a way to describe an “untidy” man has over the years taken such a crazier, negative connotation especially towards women. This specific word was even used towards black woman as a racial slur. Why are we still using this word today? And why do we feel so comfortable using it? “Yes we should be modest to an extent, but we should be more accepting of each other,” said Nicole T. We are heading towards very progressive times with women of all colors holding up signs such as “Free the Nip” and “ No-bra generation”. We must step into the bright future, leaving the word “slut” behind. Boobs should not be offensive and neither should we be to one another. Photography Courtesy of Pexels.com